I was describing a futuristic device in my upcoming novel "EXODUS!" and tried, "the size of a small apple". Hmmm... It occurred to me how often apples appear in fiction and myth, a veritable harvest:- Garden of Eden (probably not an apple, but apples get the blame) Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (poisoned apple) …
Category: Musings
Paradoxes
Ever heard of Russell's Paradox?"Consider a barber who shaves exactly those men who do not shave themselves." So who shaves the barber?The barber shaves every man who doesn't shave himself so can't give a self-shave.This always puzzled me. Not because it was hard to answer, but because no one seemed able to answer it.When I first heard this, …
SPACE: The next frontier!
Space exploration. Space settlement. Space empires. What’s the fascination? It's in our bones, or rather our genes. Our ancestors and their precursors were not satisfied with the place they grew up in. Sub-Saharan dwellers spread out to occupy every habitable place in Africa. Their cousins headed north into Arabia, then Europe (where the Atlantic Ocean …
About a Story, Maybe
Let me tell you a story... about a story. Or maybe it's about a writer. Seven years ago I started to write a story. It grew like topsy. I was squeezing an epic series spanning thousands of years into a single novel. So I found break-points and spread the tale over three, then four, books with yet …
Culling Again
Independent writers are reporting in FaceBook groups a new culling of their 5-star reviews is underway on Amazon. Other reviews are blocked before they even appear on the book's page. Yes, that's indie authors' 5-stars again. I guess if it happened to J.K. Rowling, there'd be a batch of 5-star corporate lawyers knocking on Amazon's …
Waking Up?
Well, that's been a weird few weeks. Groundhog Day all over again every morning. "What day is it, today? Is it yesterday or tomorrow?" The writing community seems to have fallen into two camps. Some were fired up, churning out thousands of words a minute, mainly about fictional global virus infections, it seems. (Good luck with sales.) …
A Winter’s Tale
February I look out the window at the storm-wracked forest beyond the rainsoaked fields and long for Spring. My personal "writing place" is my garden patio in the sunshine with rock music on my headphones and coffee within reach. Sitting in my attic office with artificial lighting to compensate for the all-day, gray-sky dullness outside …
Almost February?
Wow, time flies! I am SO glad I renamed this an "occasional blog" a while ago. Luckily, the world ducked Father Time's scythe as December slipped into January, despite Middle East issues, although China's upcoming New Year of the Rat (starts January 25, 2020) is plagued with spreading Coronavirus problems and Australia is still beset …
Getting Hissed
Can you hear that? No, you probably can’t. But I can. Tinnitus: ringing or buzzing in the ears. That definition just does not do it justice in my case. A concentration-shattering, perpetual whistling, more like. A shrill, hissing, sibilant, headache-inducing screeching that eases off to a whispering susurration at times. Or maybe you can hear …
Onward and Upward
It's a sunny day here in Luxembourg. The heatwave has eased, the rain has stopped, and it's perfect weather for sitting out on the patio and pouring thoughts and words into my laptop. I started looking through my Scrivener folder of "Unfinished Works". More accurately, it should be called, "Started and Stalled". Some authors struggle …
Andy McKell, Speculative Fiction Author 
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